“An artist with an idyllic childhood might be as rare as a house with walls made of air, but both play a part in the story of architect John Lautner. Lautner’s homes have appeared in Hollywood movies, but the architect himself wasn’t particularly well-known when he died in 1994. Still, in 2011 — the centennial year of Lautner’s birth — his hometown of Marquette, Mich., has honored him with two exhibitions: one at Northern Michigan University’s DeVos Art Museum and one at the Marquette Regional History Center.”

Nestled among round-up posts this week will be a series of things that I happened to earmark as something cool to post about in 2011, but I never got to. Out with the old and in with the new! I’m gonna clean out my “to post about” list so I can come atcha fresh in the new year!

Images: Sara Sackner/Courtesy of Judith Lautner and the John Lautner Foundation via NPR